The Love of a Good Woman
by Greatness Thrust Upon One
Summary: Set immediately following the first season finale, Emma goes searching for answers. Regina provides a few surprising ones.
1. Chapter 1

Emma found Regina sleeping in Henry's bed, curled up, clutching a pillow. In spite of the darkness of the room, Emma could make out the tear-stained tracks evident on Regina's face. She looked younger while sleeping, lacking the of intensity her waking mask. Emma pulled a chair next to the bed, taking a seat. She lifted a boot-clad leg and kicked the mattress. Regina startled awake, confusion reigning over her features. A flash of lightening from the raging storm provided Regina a glimpse of the Savior. Regina pulled herself up to a seated position, leaning against the headboard, pillow still clutched to her chest.

"Where's Henry?"

"With his grandparents," Emma replied caustically.

"Have you come to finish me off, then, Savior?" Regina rasped.

Emma ignored the question, instead taking in Regina's defeated tone, her look of utter disconsolation.

"You didn't run very far."

"I've nowhere to go," Regina responded, "Henry was my home."

"I was leaving, Regina!" Emma stood abruptly, kicking the chair back, tipping it over, as she paced Henry's room, their son's room. "I was fucking leaving!"

"He would never have been mine as long as you were around."

"What's the matter, Regina, mommy never teach you to share?" Emma spat.

At the mention of her mother, Regina's face paled, fresh tears threatening to fall. Closing her eyes to fight off the tears, Regina tilted her head back, resting it against the wall behind her.

"My mother taught me many things," she whispered, "Sharing wasn't one of them."

Emma blinked, as guilt crept up on her, as a flash of a deep, long carried pain etched Regina's face. Emma's conversation with her mother, with Snow, Mary Margaret - fuck, this was all too damn much - rang in her ears, of Regina's mother's deceit and treachery. Only to be displaced the next moment, by the gnawing of 28 years of loneliness and loss. Renewed anger blossomed toward this woman before her, who had ripped everything from Emma, surged through her, leaving her shaking with rage born of that loneliness.

"I was willing to walk away, Regina!" Emma turned away from Regina, hands clenched into fists, aching to strike out, to rip Regina's heart out.

"One can't escape one's destiny, Miss Swan."

"Destiny!" Emma cried, "Destiny! You're saying it was my destiny to spend 28 years of my life alone and unloved! To not know kindness, or affection, to learn painful lessons on why one shouldn't bother believing in people, becoming to dependent on others, cause they'll only let you down!"

"You ripped everything from me, Regina!"

"Emma-."

"Everything, Regina," she grabbed Regina by the lapels of her jacket, lifting Regina from her seated position on the bed. Regina offered no resistance, tears freely flowing, a sob escaping before she could contain it. "Damn you, Regina! Damn you for what you've taken from me! From all of us!"

Just as quickly as the rage bubbled up and overflowed, it died, Emma releasing her hold on Regina, dropping a now openly sobbing Regina unceremoniously back onto the bed.

Fatigue slowly caught up with Emma. She turned and walked away from Regina, unable to watch the broken woman before her. She settled by the window, looking out upon the purple clouds and driving rain that enveloped Storybrooke. Shoulders slumped, she turned back to Regina.

"The storm, the purple cloud," Emma turned to stare hard at Regina, "What does it mean?"

"Rumpelstiltskin used the true love potion to bring magic to this world," Regina gasped through sobs.

"But that means..."

"Yes," she halting answered the unspoken question, "I can feel the magic coursing through me."

"But you haven't..."

"Used it?" Regina chuckled darkly, "To what end?" Regina reached for the pillow she'd been clinging to previously, Henry's pillow. "True love is stronger than anything. No charm or spell could bring Henry back to me, Miss Swan. He's your son. I was just a caretaker."

Emma gasped at the hollowness of Regina's voice, the desolation.

"I've sacrificed everything for love that I'm clearly not worthy of experiencing. Not the love of a mother for her daughter, not the love of a child for his mother, not the love of a husband for his wife, not the love of a lover for her beloved."

"Regina..."

"I've been a pawn my whole life, Miss Swan," Regina reached for something on the nightstand, "The game ends here, tonight."


	2. Chapter 2

What little light filtered into the bedroom, reflected against the dagger Regina now held in her hand as she offered the handle to Emma.

"Knight takes pawn, Miss Swan."

"How about Knight takes Queen, and they live happily ever after, instead." Two long strides, and Emma was at the edge of the bed. One half second more, and she was kneeling beside it, kneeling before the Queen, Henry's pillow brushing up against her leg. She reached for Regina's hand with one hand, reaching for the dagger with the other. "Her beloved, Regina?"

"Miss Swan..." Regina haltingly began.

"Emma," she countered, "One should call one's beloved by their first name, don't you think?"

"Emma," the name slipped from Regina's lips before she even realized it. Her heart clenched. She daren't hope that a happy ending was within her reach.

"Do you want to be saved, Regina?"

"You're destined to vanquish me!"

"I'm destined to save everyone," Emma replied. "That includes you, Regina."

"I'm not worthy of being saved" Regina pulled her hand from Emma's grasp.

"I'll be the judge of that."

"You said yourself, I took everything from you," Regina countered, "That's not something you'll easily forgive or forget."

"You had everything taken from you too, didn't you? Emma placed the dagger beside her leg, reaching for Regina's other hand, "Didn't you, Regina?"

"Don't!" Regina cried.

"Tell me, Regina," Emma persisted, "Tell me what you lost."

"My true love, Daniel," Regina managed to croak out between sobs, "A loving family. My happy ending! All because of Snow's selfishness, your mother's selfishness!" The vein in Regina's forehead throbbed, her voice hoarse with tears turned to ice. "Your mother took everything from me."

"But she's given you everything back," Emma reached for Regina's chin, forcing Regina to meet her eyes. "Henry, Snow's grandson, your son. And me, Snow White's daughter, your beloved!"

Regina pulled free from Emma's grasp, covering her face with her hands. Tears flowing freely, as she pictured Daniel's smiling face. She had attempted to squelch her burgeoning feelings for Emma since that first night she had arrived on Regina's doorstep, delivering Henry to her a second time. Guilt enveloped Regina, for with each futile attempt to drive Emma away, her body betrayed her, longing instead to pull Emma closer. With every vitriol filled confrontation, Regina's heart yearned instead to surrender totally to Emma. But acknowledging her feelings for Emma, giving into them, would have made a mockery of all that she had done in Daniel's name; a blatant betrayal of her love for Daniel, wouldn't it? Deep down, Regina knew a tryst with Emma wouldn't be meaningless, not like what she had with Graham; time with Graham was merely scratching an itch, and while she certainly missed his company after she banished him, her loss was more about missing the regularity of physical connection. The intensity of her feelings for Emma, Regina realized, could easily rival, if not surpass those for Daniel. They were born of the needs and understanding of a woman, not those of the child she was when she was with Daniel. An insidious thought rattled around Regina's mind, that perhaps Daniel was a longed for escape from her abusive mother, and not true love after all. The thought stopped her cold. And yet, she couldn't escape the fact that Emma challenge her as no other had. Emma, Regina knew, would be her equal in all ways. With Emma, Regina knew, she could become all the things she had always wanted to be.

Still, Regina resisted, out of a rapidly evaporating loyalty to Daniel. And out of fear, for there was always the possibility of Emma's rejection to grapple with. That possibility seemed to became a reality the afternoon at the Sheriff's station, after Sidney's utterly implausible confession. Emma's hatred for Regina was beyond evident, her threat to take Henry, bringing the situation to a boil, steeling Regina's resolve. Whatever seeds of hope attempting to break through the guilt and uncertainty dominating Regina died that afternoon, forcing Regina down the path of holding on to the one thing she still tenuously grasped - Henry. Emma had to be dealt with, to solidify Regina's hold on Henry, and because Regina couldn't bear the thought of interacting on a continued basis, with someone who would forever remain out of her reach.

Emma reached for Regina's hands again, pulling them away from her face. Desperation defining her features, Emma recalled Snow stumbling through the entire story, after they'd tucked Henry up in Emma's bedroom. Snow had lied once to James about Regina's motive for vengeance; she couldn't lie to Emma, not after plainly seeing Emma's love for Regina. Snow also saw Emma's rage just under the surface, stirred by Henry's near death, and the stark memories of her childhood lost to foster care. Emma, remembering her conversation with Snow, now clung to her mother's entreaty to choose love and forgiveness.

"Don't tell me you don't feel what's between us, Regina," Emma pleaded, "Don't deny the attraction, the pull between us all these months!"

Emma knew it was more than simple attraction. She had felt it that first night as she watched Regina wrap her arms around their son. And he was their son, Emma knew it now. Regina loved Henry, enough to give up everything in order to save him. Enough to walk away as her heart was clearly shattering; Emma had witnessed it firsthand at the hospital. Someone who could love so deeply, be willing to sacrifice everything for love, must surely be worthy of love in return, but more importantly to Emma, must surely be capable of loving others. At least that's what Emma was banking on.

"It will all have been for nothing," Regina cried, "The curse, this town, all for nothing!"

"Henry wouldn't be here. Is he nothing?"

"No!" Regina emphatically replied.

"And me, the one person capable of understanding the extent of your loss, how it shaped you, changed you, drove you to do unspeakable things. Am I nothing?"

"No! You're everything!"

"Then tell me, tell me what you can regain, by reaching for what's right in front of you, for what's being offered to you," Emma's voice wavered under the weight of emotion, tears escaping unchecked, "Tell me, Regina."

The last bit of resistance, guarding Regina's heart finally crumbled. Tears shone brightly in Emma's hopeful eyes, filled with such love, it left Regina breathless. This love that Emma had for her couldn't possibly be weakness as her mother had taught her. This love was lifting her up, the strength of Emma's love was lifting her up. The light of Emma's love was blinding her to everything else.

"Tell me, Regina!" Emma insisted.

"The love of a good woman, our son," Regina's voice barely a whisper, "A loving family."

"My happy ending."

Emma reached for Regina's cheek, wiping tears with her thumb. She slowly drew closer to Regina until their lips met in the gentlest of kisses.

"This is my happy ending, Regina." Emma leaned forward for another kiss, as light exploded around them, "You're my happy ending."


End file.
